Well this is sort of like novelling.

I am trying to write, this is not usually an issue for me. But the last few days it has been, I don't know what's gotten into me. I usually write at the coffee shop, with coffee (Obviously), but since that didn't work last time (and I am feeling incredibly lazy today) I have stayed at home and am trying to work. I made myself chocolate milk for something to drink but I finished my milk before I had had even worked up the motivation to open my word document. I have managed 643 words in the last hour. I guess that is an ok amount, but they have all been forced. I want to be immersed in my story. You know what I am talking about? When you don't see your computer screen anymore, you just see what you are writing and you can feel what your characters are feeling. It's more like you are watching the story unfold than unfolding the story. That's what I want now. Sometimes it is nice to pick apart the story connect dots that don't seem like they could be connected, but not this time. I want this one time to be effortless.

Ok, new subject. I have applied to Semester at Sea. I really really want to go on the Spring 2015 voyage. It would be an amazing, challenging, ridiculous, impossible adventure. Mainly it may end up being impossible because there is no way that I can earn the money required to go on that trip. So, if I get in, I am applying for the Presidential Scholarship. I have gotten the advice from a couple people that I need to be very specific and detailed in how to carry out my plan. My goal is to collect The Most Important Stories of the World. I want to go to people at every port and talk to them, and get them to tell me what they think the most important story is. That is specific as I am going to make it, the story could be about their own lives, their communities life, it could be a legend, or a fairytale, it could be a religious story. Anything. The challenging part of this project is 1) The whole language barrier, I can't expect everyone I meet to speak English. 2) Getting myself to walk up to someone and getting them share with me something as personal as their most important story. 3) This bit is the least difficult for me, but, compiling all the stories, keeping them organized. I would like to write about my experience gathering the story each time as well.

Alright and my last topic. I work at a To-Shin Do dojo, my job title is Office Ninja, I'm not even joking. But To-Shin Do is about more than just the physical self-protection aspect of martial arts. That is a huge part of it, obviously, but it's also about protecting your self from yourself. For example, not beating yourself up about mistakes you make. Allowing that they happened, recognizing that it was your fault, determining how to avoid it in the future, and moving on. This self from self protection also comes in with the people you associate with. (Everyone I associate with is awesome so I don't have as much to worry about here) But if you are with people who make you feel bad about yourself all the time, then change that situation. You should be an environment where you feel comfortable feeling happy. For me the most challenging bit of this is opening myself up to people enough so that I feel like I know them, and they know me. For a long time while I was here I didn't really know anyone and no one made any particular moves to make sure they knew me. They all had lives here already, I was new and didn't know anyone. Now after two months I am enough part of their lives that I have began giving out my number and have been invited to different activities to do outside the dojo. So that's fun.

This whole blog post is basically just procrastination from writing, I think I'll be getting back to that now.

I've Missed You

So, I am currently living in Colorado working at a Martial Arts dojo. This is a great job, I don't start work till three, it's fun, good co-workers, my boss likes me, yadee yaddee yaddiee.
This is also not so great a job, mainly because it doesn't start until three in the afternoon. This means that I have absolutely no incentive to get up in the morning. You'd think this would be great, you get to sleep in as much as you want, how wrong you are. It was great at first, coming out of my rigorous too many classes in college time it was great. But I found that I quickly became bored. And the thing is I sleep in so late that I can't go to sleep until very late. I'v essentially created my own personal time-zone, it's a lonely place. I mean, can you imagine being all alone in your timezone?
The title of this post is "I've Missed You" because I've been silly not to talk to all you non-existent adoring fans out there. Because I am writing like you exist it feels like I am talking to you, it's an up-lifting experience for me. And you all are great listeners, you never even interrupt.
My catalyst for this post was I signed up for Camp Nanowrimo (If you don't know what it is, go look it up, you're online now anyway) and in the setting up of my profile I posted this blog as my website. I wouldn't want someone to click on my website and then see that I haven't updated it in months, that would be a bad first impression. I have 11 days to post everyday so that when someone eventually stalks me (It's got to happen at some point) it will appear that I am a dedicated blogger.

Muahahaha, how little they know!

Fighting Inertia

What I really want to do right now is watch a TV show. Any TV show really, doesn't have to be a good one. The one that I happen to be thinking of right now is Once Upon A Time which is almost a cool idea and almost has good acting and writing and stuff--it's a good mind number while still allowing the critic in me to judge with enthusiasm, really the perfect balance.
Anyway, I am writing this blog post to steer myself away from making the bad decision of wasting 40 minutes of my day on that, especially when I am meeting a friend to do homework 3 minutes. This is the most awful way to justify my thought process here in that the possibility of watching this TV show even existed, but the reason I thought that is because this particular friend of mine is half an hour late to everything we plan on doing. This time I am meeting her in her room so she will have more trouble being late unless she starts talking to someone on her way back from class. I also still need to get dressed. You know, I 'm going to do it. I'll stress myself out to stop myself from watching the TV show. Actually this may have the side-effect of making me watch the show because I tend to run  a few steps from my problems before remembering that I could totally kick their ass. Ok my list

35 math problems + math midterm (haven't studied or done any of the problems)
Correct Chem test
Do Chem HW
Do Chem Reading
Start Chem test
Do Bio Reading
Finish Bio Class works (3)
Finish Education Reading
Write Threaded Discussion for Edu
Research for Bio paper
Research for Edu project
Pick up lab book
To Shin Do reading
To Shin Do journal
Contact Job Contacts
Write cover letter drafts
Send out resume
research internships

If any one reads this blog and thinks of a job they think I would be able to do: I'm a dedicated worker, I can easily switch between being task oriented or thinking about the big picture, I'm punctual, and I have a good attitude. Let me know! I need a job/internship this spring.

Thank you!

Ok, I think that's a rough estimate of my next week....it could be not that much, or it could be a lot.

New Quarter

Well, it's not actually a new quarter, I have my first midterm tomorrow. But, to give you a sense of what this quarter has been like thus far  I shall refer you to the post right below this one. That post was written during finals week or the week before, the level of my comprehensibility and intellectual ability has been about that all this quarter.
Now, from that sentence you may want to assume that I have gotten dumber this quarter, while I am not ruling that out as an option, my point is that this entire quarter is like every week is finals week. I do not know how I am going to survive finals week, I really don't. Especially since I am leaving on Friday which means I have to pack up my entire room as well as turn a couple things in early during all of the other finals week craziness. Egh!
I wonder sometimes if it would be good for me to write in this everyday. It might be, but what I really want to do is write in my novel everyday. Don' get me wrong, I love talking to you, you're a great listener, I just would rather see what my characters do in relation to the plot I am letting them wander around in.
This quarter doesn't leave very much time for all this writing nonsense though, so I am not doing very much writing of any kind. My roommate just told me that she didn't think I could go a week without going on facebook. I think that constitutes a challenge. I'm going to do it, no facebook for me. This means that you will be hearing a lot more from me, I don't think less facebook will equal less procrastination.
Update on me: I might have a torn rotator cuff. At the very least my shoulder has been clunking for a couple years, hurting for a couple months, and the doctor says that every time it clunks it's dislocating a little bit. I went to get an MRI and I need to schedule a follow up appointment to talk to my doctor about what it means. I will call the office tomorrow--hold me to that would you?
I think that concludes this tirade. Oh, I may start writing about To Shin Do because I am reading the Complete Ninja Defense (I'm not entirely sure what the title is) by Stephen K Hayes, I know it sounds corny, and to a certain extent it is. But I really like it and I can relate to it, it doesn't feel fake. The concept of it has just been commercialized and bastardized is the real problem with misconceptions. Anyway, I am reading the book for my To Shin Do class and in that class we have to turn in one journal every week. I think that if I write a little bit about what I read after I read it every time here that that would be good for my "mental development in the art" (I made that quotation up). Ok, actually leaving now.
Neeeveermind, I may also write about the state of the education system in America because we have a class on it right now and it is pretty damn atrocious.
Ok, now I'm leaving.
bye

Still Not Doing Homework, but working hard.....kinda

Maybe I should write a play instead of doing my homework. Maybe I should just watch a single episode of a single TV show to get procrastination out of my system. Maybe I should see how many words I can write in an hour (I think I've gotten like 1500 on that one before). Maybe I should just go to sleep. Maybe I shouldn't be writing this blog (i just wrote blood instead of blog). Maybe I should just do my freaking homework. I have so much at this point that it basically encompasses my entire life. I am surprised that this isn't homework.
This is an odd principle, that I have so much homework everything I do seems to be layered with it, and yet nothing I do gets any of my homework done. I say that is an oxy moron for the ages.
You know what? I am going to do something really stupid that will fill me with a bit of self-disgust. I am going to watch a TV show.
The reason that I am going to do this, god damnit lookit me now, trying to rationalize it. I can do this because I got ahead on all my other work so that I could work on my final projects. That means that I just have a little bit of studying for a quiz tomorrow to do. My brain is short circuiting because nothing is due for three days but I still have a BUNCH of work.
I'm sorry you had to read this if you read it. I feel that little place in my chest where my sense of self-confidence and efficacy sits as I get closer and closer to not doing my homework but watching TV instead.
Why am I doing this to myself. If I ever read this post again I will wish that I could reach back in time and slap me upside the head. When I say upside the head I mean with an upwards motion and make contact right above the neck. I deserve it. Future me, if the technology has been developed, please do it. Damn, we don't get virtual time travel in my lifetime. Or I am never rich enough to afford it. Try harder future me.
Ok, try harder present me too.
I shouldn't post this, what if I try to get a job and they see this.
ATTENTION ALL FUTURE EMPLOYERS! I am actually ahead on my work right now, as I mentioned before. I have a lot of work still to do, but I have never turned in an assignment late. I got this, I really do. OK thank you for only paying attention to this last paragraph. I am going to go rest my mind for an appropriate amount of time before jumping back into the thick of my work!
Whooo, this'll be fun!

I'm Back!

I hope you didn't miss me.
I realize that I have not posted anything for a while, and since you are likely reading these en masse and not as I post them you would not be aware of this tidbit. But now you are, it has been a little over a month since my last real post. You will notice, if you check, that I did post toward the end of November but that one doesn't count because it was to my roommate who happened to be reading this.
I write now because I should be working on final projects, surprise surprise. And because I just woke up from a fifteen minute power nap and was very confused.
First a bit about power naps.
I love power naps, they have gotten me through many a day. A power nap is a short nap, usually about fifteen minutes where you lie down with your eyes closed. You don't have to sleep, it's like a quick charge. You know when you plug your phone in and take it out again after just a few minutes it will appear to be fully charged for at least a little bit? No, well that's what non-smart phones do. Anyway, that's essentially the point of a power nap. A couple rules for these to work.
1) You must actually lie down, close your eyes and do nothing. Skimming twitter or facebook or incessantly watching Vines doesn't help. Close your eyes, be still.
2) You must set a timer.
3) When that timer goes off you MUST get up. If you don't you have to wait another half an hour until you will feel refreshed upon waking. (this has to do with sleep cycles and brain waves, I wont' get into it.)
4)I'm serious, follow the three steps above.
That being said, it doesn't always work. One time when I set my timer I set it for fifteen hours instead of fifteen minutes. I did not sleep that entire time but I was late for class. Another time I was lying on the floor and my roommate tripped over me, this lead to an almond butter jar falling on my phone which broke it. My most recent story, this happened about fifteen minutes ago. I was taking a power nap and my roommate needed the light on so I was sleeping with a scarf covering my eyes for darkness. (This is not a necessary step in power-napping) when my alarm went off I couldn't figure out why it was so dark and I couldn't see. I thought that I had slept through all my evening hours of homework time. It was terrifying.
Speaking of hours of homework. I am studying the affects/effects of the internet and social media in democracy and governance. I made a survey, if you read this before, let's say December 15th 2013, take the survey. It takes between 30 seconds and 2 minutes.  Social Media and the Internet's Perceived Affects in Governance I would really appreciate as much data as I can get. Thank you!

Hi Roomie!

You will be happy to know that I now know who my viewer is. Henceforth I shall no longer consider you inexistent, as I think of it now that seems kind of rude. To accuse you of not being real when you are sitting there reading this. That is very sweet of you, by the way, for taking time out of your busy day to read this. I do acknowledge the point that if you are reading this you are either very creepy and a stalker, planning on killing me, planning on recruiting me for a top secret mission and analyzing me, or very deep in the depths of procrastination.
With that note I will now only address you as you and nevermore shall I accuse you of not existing.

P.S. The reason I haven't been writing here is because it's November, Folk, and that means that I am working on my novel. Alright, gotta get back to it, thought I would just drop by.